Handling a business without customer relationship management is like going through a river of fire. You will be spending more on operation handling and you will need more resources as well. Overall, the operation handling time will increase, and this will impact the profit. Right now, CRM is becoming a necessity for big and small businesses. If you are a small business with the aim of scalability, CRM will help you improve your ROI. From a small 10 employee company to as big as 1000 or more, CRM is an important tool.
Right now, 72% of businesses globally agree that they need CRM for their business, but most companies are not aware which CRM will suit their business model or which type is ideal for them. You need a simple affordable solution for your business that will help you target the unique style of your business.
Most people like the idea of a cloud-based CRM whereas, others are still stuck with traditional On-Premises CRM. To select something for your business, you need to keep in mind that you are looking for the value of money. Your choice must address affordability and advanced features as well.
What is Cloud-Based CRM?
Cloud CRM is a customer relationship software that is hosted on a third-party server in a data center. Everyone and anyone with permission can access that data via the internet from anywhere without any hurdle. Commonly cloud-based CRM is also called online CRM, SaaS CRM, or web CRM.
In the last decade, we have seen immense development in the IT industry. Research by international data crop reports growth in cloud services in 2020. It also reported a whopping 23% increase in cloud-based services in the last 5 years. Similarly, Flexera reported a 61% increase in the cloud-based migration n among businesses.
Why do You Need to Switch to Online CRM?
Speedy
With the help of cloud CRM, you can easily believe that you are using the updated and advanced version of CRM. Every feature that is updated is deployed right away which means that you will be using the latest features. On the contrary, if you have on-premises traditional style CRM, you will see that you must wait for the download and installation after deployment. If you are lazy and forgot to download the latest version, you will be stuck with the older version.
Affordable
With on-site CRM, you will need people to update the new version and develop the features you need. This means more time and more resources will be required which will impact the cost as well. Apart from this, you need a maintenance team and an IT team as well. With cloud CRM, everything will be updated and activated right away, and everyone will have access to all features without any discrimination.
Easy Access for Everyone
One of the biggest issues that most people face with the manual system is discrimination and accessibility-related issues. According to EEOC, more than 100,000 workers file official workplace discrimination cases every day for various reasons. Imagine offering access to new features for only one department and leaving everyone else on the older version. This is very common in IT-based companies with on-premises CRM systems. With the help of cloud-based CRM, you will always have full access to data with the help of any device. Cloud CRM also liberation you from limitations of location, you can access the data from the office or any other city or even other countries. With remote working becoming the biggest trend, cloud-based CRM is becoming a necessity as well.
Easy Upgrade
When the CRM tech staff upgrades the features, everyone wants to try the new version. With a cloud-based system, you will be offering new features for everyone, at the same time. on the contrary. It takes a lot of time to upgrade, download and install everything if you have an on-site CRM system. The cloud CRM offers an easy upgrade that allows you to save time, money and enjoy the latest version of CRM.
Improved Security
IT companies go through cyberattacks on regular basis. Even the biggest tech giants like Facebook, Instagram WhatsApp, and google are not exempt from this. It is also one of the biggest concerns of all IT-based companies that lead them to adopt SaaS CRM. Companies offering cloud-based CRM take security very seriously because they are trusted by tech giants with their data. Cloud serving companies always have a cyber team at their disposal that takes care of security. These companies have advanced automatization backup policies so that they can help you receiver your data completely in case there is an issue with your system. They offer two-step authentication and verification for data access as well. On the contrary, if you have on-premises CRM, you will need a cyber security team at your beck and call, which means it will get expensive.
Scalability Options
When you start a business you think that it will become successful and grow further. Imagine getting a CRM that doesn’t offer a scalability option and gets overloaded when more people try to use it. In most cases, on-premises CRM systems crash down if it gets overloaded. You need something that will offer flexibility so that it doesn’t affect the scalability of your business. With cloud-based CRM you can easily customize the package according to the requirement of your business and it doesn’t require a technical overhaul. With just a simple request for capacity renewal by the company, your service provider will be able to offer instant expansion which otherwise might take too much time.
Improvement in Productivity
In the time of instant gratification, agility is the only solution to improving business profit. Virtually everything is affected by the agility of the software. With agile-based cloud CRM, you will be able to access the data without any discrimination of device. You can use your laptop, tablet, smartphone, or any other gadget. Apart from this, these cloud-based CRMs also offer customization options so you can easily change things according to your choice.
Data Backup
In the world of new tech, data is the new oil. This means without access to data; your business will suffer. With the help of cloud-based service providers, you will have a complete data backup. Big tech and financial companies that ensure the confidentiality of the customer ensure data protection at all costs. With cloud-based data back, you are ensuring easy period backing up. In case anyone with access to customization changes something, it will be visible to all. If the server breaks down, data backup will ensure that it doesn’t affect our work. Cloud CRM service providers have data backup plans with robust data recovery implementation systems.
24/7 Support
With on-premises CRM, you will need an IT team that is expert in multiple applications. This means on-site CRM maintenance will cost you a lot. In case something goes wrong with a system, you can contact the service provider and they will sort out your issue. With on-premises data, you cannot ensure security which means you will not have data backup in case of a cyber-attack. Even if you ensure security, you will need a team which means a lot of resources and spending a lot of money.
